Multicultural Dilemmas: Identity, Difference, Otherness

Multiculturalism has recently become a word without which hardly any discussion of identity, nationality or historical and ideological narratives seems possible. However, the popularity of this word and its current usefulness should not obscure the fact that the concept itself is not an easy and obvious one: many apparently firm assumptions have been disputed from a multicultural perspective, while there are still a great number of social, cultural and political spheres which need to be re-defined and re-articulated as some dominant notions and symbols have been subverted by recognition of the diversity of subjective positions and cultural identities. The concept of multiculturalism assumes that our identities - both individual and collective - are shaped by our relationships with others. This volume addresses issues of multiculturalism and identity in culture and reveals a wide spectrum of perspectives from which we look at the Other/the Unfamiliar/the Unknown. It is an attempt to reveal the patterns and practices our culture has used in order to envisage, negate or welcome the Other, and seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion about multiculturalism.

The Editors: Wojciech H. Kalaga is Professor of Literary Theory and English Literature at the University of Silesia (Poland). He is also Chair of the Department of Literary and Cultural Theory and Director of Institute of British and American Culture and Literature. His publications include Nebulae of Discourse: Interpretation, Textuality and the Subject, and numerous papers on literary and cultural theory. He is also editor-in-chief of journal Er(r)go: Teoria - Literatura - Kultura.
Marzena Kubisz is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University of Silesia (Poland). Her research interest include sociology of the body, cultural theory and the modern British novel. Previous publications include Strategies of Resistance. Body, Identity and Representation in Western Culture (2003). She is currently working on a study of the representations of space in contemporary British fiction.